Various machines have been proposed heretofore for spreading a bed sheet or other piece of laundry flatwork and feeding it to an ironer and a folder. Such machines are used by hotels, hospitals and similar institutional laundries. Typically, such machines have two clamps for holding the adjacent corners along one edge (the top edge) of the flatwork. After these corners are inserted, the clamps are moved apart to the left and right, respectively, to spread the flatwork along this edge. Then the clamps release the corners of the flatwork and the leading (upper) end of the flatwork is placed onto a conveyor, which advances the flatwork to the ironer or other processing equipment. The trailing part of the flatwork is spread by laterally outwardly moving confronting segments of endless flexible belts before passing up onto the conveyor.
Various machines of this general type have been designed to accommodate two or more operators at different loading stations. For example, the machine shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,376,036 to Weir has two laterally spaced loading stations, the machine shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,664,046 to Thompson has three loading stations, and the apparatus shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,729,846 to Weir has four. Such machines require transfer devices for transferring flatwork pieces from each of the loading stations to clamps at the middle of the machine.